KevinStockerIsGod

I think I’m seeing what happened, but it’s just my opinion.  I’ll first say I think adding pederson and stripling would have rounded out the roster nicely, especially if the only player of consequence on the major league side was Rengifo going.  
 

Our trade was agreed to pending completion of the Betts trade.  When Boston held up the deal, Arte probably grew super impatient, especially with it playing out in public, and didn’t want to be left twisting in the wind.  Probably short sided, but I digress...  then when the Betts trade was resolved yesterday, we reconvened and the Dodgers didn’t want to move forward with deal as constructed.  The 40 man issues with adding the Twins pitcher to the new deal may have precluded the original terms anyway.  At the end of the day, I believe if the Red Sox would not have held up everything and the deal changed, this would have gone down.  Maybe it can be revisited as Rosenthal mentioned, but we’ll see.
 

Love our team, hopefully Adell rips it up and we can get some help in season.

Can we just enjoy the fact, assuming we get this done, that we will finally have a cornerstone 3b after a decade of futility there?  Optimism for the win. 

Also, they can offer a Harper type deal, where you offer him more years, but same money package.  This deal will be his last most likely, so if you gave him a 10 year deal for 300, you save on the AAV and can spread the money around more.  

It’s kind of ridiculous how it seems like the Yankees can be the only team that can make someone a priority and everyone else has to deal with it.  Cole is going to the team offering the best deal.  If that’s the Yankees, then he’ll go there, but last week I saw many people saying Moreno is all in.  It’s embarrassing how these writers bend over for the Yankees, as if the Angels or anyone else couldn’t outbid them.  
 

As an Angels fan, of course I want us to sign him, but until it’s official, this public fawning of the Yankees “inevitable victory” means absolutely nothing.

It depends.  We desperately need an ace, but if signing Cole limited what else we could do to add to the pitching staff, catcher, and anything else we might want to do, I wouldn’t be too upset.  If our offseason consisted of Cole, Miley, and Castro, it would be ok, but not enough.  Just spitballing, but if we could do a Wheeler, Odorizzi, Hamels, and Grandal/trade for Contreras haul for a similar price, that’s the depth we would need to really give it a go.  

I'm not saying Blake Parker shouldn't be the closer, he earned the chance to be our closer with his performance last year.  However, last year's performance came out of nowhere, and while I hope that he continues on that path, it would be a little more comfortable also having a guy who's been consistently one of the best closers over the last several years.  If this were December, I wouldn't think much of it, but since we're in March with the season rapidly approaching and no one really stepping up, we may be in a position where you can add a proven closer at less than the past market value. 

Eppler obviously doing homework to see if it's worth it or not.

I really think the opportunity to get Ohtani, a player with his age, talent, and cost is something that can't be understated.  I believe any team that would have got him, especially in this day and age, would have had to make similar adjustments to their team to accommodate and optimize his usage or at least try to provide that opportunity. 

For the Angels pitching side, adding Ohtani and going to a 6 man rotation works pretty well.  Most of our rotation is coming back from injury or were part time performers last year.  In a perfect world, they'd be healthy and great and pitched every 5th day, however that hasn't really worked us in some time.  This allows the pitchers to reduce workload, which I think could be a good thing.  And you've added a potential ace for a minimum cost at 23. 

For the offensive side, I think adding Ohtani caused a bit of a logjam at 1st/DH, however the real impact porbably would have happened with or without him.  Earlier in the offseason, we were linked to Alonso, Morrison...a lot of that 2nd tier, but good 1Bman.  I think if Ohtani went elsewhere, we would have been inclined to move Cron anyway and added a 1B.  Essentially the Angels filled this DH/1B role by adding Ohtani, moving Pujols back to 1st and putting Valbuena in a utility role.  Lot of moving parts, but I think we were headed in that direction anyway, save for Pujols making more starts at 1st. 

So yes, there were a lot of pieces moved and shuffled, but I see benefits to a lot of the changes.  The media distraction is another question, but I think we've got a great vet core who will lead our team. 

2 minutes ago, OHTANILAND said:

They’re doing everything they can to move some of Ellsbury’s salary off the books. They want Darvish. 

They also need a 2B and 3B.  And moving Ellsbury will be a difficult proposition. 

5 minutes ago, OHTANILAND said:

Just means that the Yankees may now be in on Darvish.

I doubt that puts the Yankees in on Darvish.  Yankees are trying to reduce payroll to stay under the tax this year.  They probably could have fit in Cole, but adding a 20+ mil a year pitcher doesn't really make sense for them.

He plays great defense, has good pop, saw a resurgence in offense last year with a changed batting stance...for a free agent signing, this is very manageable. 

3/38....not bad at all

My thought about Cozart...Most likely needs a 3-4 year deal.  He can play multiple positions, which helps.  Good defender.  Big offensive year last year.  I could see a scenario where we sign Cozart, plug in a 3rd and use Valbuena as a rover at 1st and 3rd and Cozart can back up SS and 2nd if needed.  After next season when Kinsler is a FA, they could slot Cozart at 2nd and play on a 3rd baseman coughMachadocough. 

Even if Seattle gets pool money...this moves reeks of desperation.  Forcing a GG 2nd baseman to play CF, a difficult position to play, plus take on a decent contract...yeah, this is an odd fit.

I'm glad to see we have made it to the "Finals" list, and am encouraged about our chances.  Clearly, Ohtani isn't just thinking about taking the most money available, though the Rangers are still in play.  I really think it's a bit overblown that Seattle is the defacto favorite.  It was comical seeing a lot of national writers jumping off the Ohtani to Yankees bandwagon and right to the Mariners last night, without even knowing what teams he plans to meet with and really what his intentions are.

Considering that he eliminated a majority of the field, and we decided to make a play for additional international money with the intent of using to bring in Ohtani just last week, I feel somewhat comfortable that we are getting major consideration.  I believe the Padres are a major darkhorse in this conversation.  I don't even know who is the favorite, I think every team left has a realistic shot, one way or the other.  That being said, I love for the Angels to make a huge splash here, with minimal financial implication. 

Wow, all slot money...Angels now ranked 7th out of all MLB teams in total slot money available.  This move was definitely to run for Ohtani or pick up former Braves prospects. 

If the Angels plan on making a run at Ohtani or some of the recent prospects forfeited by Atlanta, this is a worthwhile endeavor and maybe we get a decent RP out of it.

Fletcher was a little off, Johnson had a 3.06 ERA in 2016.  Last year, it was 5.56....so I'm definitely thinking Angels took the gamble on Johnson for the pool money. 

I am curious to see how much international money we are gaining.  We were near the bottom of available pool space and this trade basically is giving Atlanta a prospect for an erratic (either pretty good or really bad) reliever paid $5 mil next season.  With the Braves sanctions severely limiting international participation, I could this being more about the pool money than Jim Johnson. 

Where we are, in terms of farm system and recent team performance, I think this offseason has been perfect.  It's not over, we'll see if any other last minute moves are made, but what Eppler did was not take away anything from the farm, add some interesting waiver claims, addressed the glaring holes on the major league roster, and did all this at marginal costs, most of the one year variety.  The only adds over one year were the 2+1 for Valbuena and the acquisition of Maldonado who is still in arbitration years.  The extension of Calhoun has locked down RF for years.  This was an offseason of moves made to contend, but moves that allow us to shift track midseason if the major league isn't performing without much detriment.  I would expect a busy trade season if the team isn't performing.  Either we are winning or hopefully getting back useful pieces for the future by possibly trading Escobar, Espinoza, Maybin, Revere, Chavez, and maybe more depending on other moves. 

I believe next offseason will see a lot of action, with a better FA class, another year of high draft picks for the system, and a lot of money coming off the books.  In addition, we will at a minimum need to address 2B, 3B (?), LF, bullpen, and possibly catcher. 

Jeff Fletcher ‏@JeffFletcherOCR 15h15 hours ago

Maldonado had a 40% CS rate last season. 

#Angels keep trying to improve run prevention as subtle way to upgrade. Maldonado has D reputation, good at framing pitches/throwing - Joel Sherman

Sorry for it being so small...

Gia 2B

Pennington SS

Choi DH

Cron 1B

Perez C

Marte 3B

Gentry CF

Cunningham RF

Ortega LF

Santiago P

"You want to be productive, whatever it is. You want to move the guy over when you have to. You want to come up with a big hit. I don't want to look at the end of the year and be like, 'Let me see my numbers.' I want to look at the end of the year and see how many times I came through for my team and how often I helped my team win a game."

Exactly what I wanted to hear. I would be concerned if his goal was to hit 20 homers or something. If it happens great, but the goal is to do your job at the plate, whatever that is, to win the game. That's a great attitude to have.